Wednesday, September 28, 2011

BAGELS

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I love carbs. I crave them. It's really sad and disgusting because I know that when my metabolism starts slowing down in a few years, I will have to cut back. In a huge way. But I guess until then, I can indulge. You're only young once, right?! Right. Anyways! My boyfriend sent this bagel recipe to me about a year or so ago, but I only started experimenting with it this summer. He's usually a health freak* about eating out and eating lots of store-bought carbs, but he fully supports me if I bake them myself. So seriously, I don't know why I didn't start doing this earlier. Another thing that really pushed me towards baking my own bagels was bagel spice. I tried it on fried dippy eggs this year and since then, I have been thinking about actually using them on real bagels. So since I started experimenting with the recipe this summer, something I learned was that those little bottles of bagel spice get used up in basically one batch. So logically, I went and bought a 5 lb. bag of it. Yes, you can buy 5 lbs of spice. You're very welcome for that tidbit of information. So here is the recipe: Bagels. And here are some pictures:

One thing I do need to improve: my roll technique. My bagels turned out really lopsided. Luckily they taste awesome. No, I did not make bagels and immediately consume one.**

Also, I would like to point out that although the recipe at no time says explicitly to "cover" the bagels while they are resting, it is necessary for proper rise and retaining moisture! This is probably intuitive to most people, but I am a rookie at bread baking.

* I mean this in the most loving way possible. Isn't he so sweet to look after my health?!